Dances With Jellyfish
by Zeng Li
Summary: Reno is put in charge of the fussy, cranky Vice President Rufus after he gets stung by a jellyfish. Perhaps it's more painful to serve the convalescing VP than it is to get stung by a spineless sea creature. Originally written in 2003.


_Dances With Jellyfish  
__By: Zeng Li_

"Why do I have to be the one stuck with baby-sitting duty?" Reno folded his arms and whined to his superior.

"Rufus is 16 years old," Tseng reminded him, donning his own shades to tone down the bright sunlight of the Coasta del Sol beach. "It's not baby-sitting, Reno. It's bodyguard duty, just like the Turks do for the presidential family where ever they go. Besides, you have the easy job. Rude and I have to accompany the President to a boring P.R. event in Junon."

"Whatever..." Reno trailed.

Tseng clapped a hand onto his young Turk's reddening shoulder. "We'll be back this time tomorrow. It's the simplest of tasks, and it's not too much to ask for." He started to walk away. "And put on some sunscreen, Reno!" he called back to the pale-skinned man.

Reno muttered incoherently and kicked a spray of sand up under his foot. He sat back down on his lounge chair in the full sunlight. He reached blindly for the bottle of sun lotion while keeping an eye on Rufus who was enjoying standing at the edge of the surf as it rode up onto the beach.

Reno rubbed the greasy lotion up both arms and onto the sides of his neck, figuring he'd steal a moment to get a shirt on to cover up his body so his back and chest didn't get burned any more. He was fully engaged in applying the lotion that he was startled back to reality by a scream that sounded a lot like the Vice President.

He looked up and saw Rufus hopping around, squealing frantically. He dropped the bottle of lotion and ran out to the surf. He stopped just short of the VP right before his foot stepped on a rather large blob that laid in the sand nearby. It was a large, hideous jellyfish that had washed up onto the shore, it's ribbony tentacles splayed out around its circular body.

Reno circumnavigated the obstacle and reached a hand out to Rufus, who was hopping now on just one foot. The V.P.'s other foot was scored with a red, several-inch long line across his instep, and the toes were puffed up already.

"It stung me!!" Rufus cried, leaning on Reno so he wouldn't fall over.

The Turk pulled Rufus a few hops away from the beached jellyfish. "All right, all right... Take it easy..." Reno said, aiding the young blond away from the surf.

Rufus tried to step down onto his stung right foot, but it had started bleeding and the fine, salty sand was getting into the wound, irritating it further. Just a few steps away from the ocean, and already, the appendage had swollen up considerably.

Reno halted and secured an arm around Rufus' back. "All right, I'll carry you back to the villa," he resolved.

"Wait! Reno...!" Rufus protested as the Turk lifted him into his lotioned up arms. Reno easily carried the V.P.'s body across the beach, to the boardwalk, and across the avenue to the president's villa. The whole time, Rufus kept his hands up by his face so that on-lookers wouldn't see a man of such prominence be brought down to the level of a sorry victim.

Reno laid the teen on the nearest bed and reached for his cell phone before much else. He speed-dialed the family's personal physician in Midgar. To his relief, the sting was said to be non-fatal, and an ordinary Mako-derived antidote would be enough to curb the worst of the symptoms. The swelling, however, was doomed to linger for another 24 hours.

Even after ingesting the antidote, Rufus was still in considerable pain. "Hey! Where are you going!?" the cranky boy demanded as Reno began to walk away.

"Relax," said the Turk, turning the corner into the kitchen. "The doctor said we need to clean the wound and keep it elevated to drain some of the fluid." He returned with a dishpan full of cold tap water with ice cubes in it and a clean rag.

Rufus fussed needlessly even as Reno tucked a few pillows under the boy's knee to prop the swollen foot up so he could put the dishpan on the bed under it.

"Ow! Stop it!!" Rufus cried, on the verge of tears as Reno gently wiped the cold-water soaked rag over the sting.

Reno fought to keep hold of Rufus' foot. "Sir, would you please relax?"

"Don't call me 'Sir'!"

"Fine, dammit! Then stop being such a baby..." Reno intentionally squeezed the rag a little harder against Rufus' irritated skin. The V.P. yelled but didn't formulate a come-back line.

The water was successfully washing out the grains of sand and clearing the fresh blood that slowly rose out of the damaged skin. Rufus gripped the bedsheets in both fists at his side and let the Turk finish cleansing the wound site with little more than a few painful flinches.

Satisfied that the cold water had cleaned the wound and halted the bleeding, Reno returned the dishpan to the kitchen and came back with a box of first aid supplies.

"What are you doing!?" Rufus demanded, Reno sitting on the bed alongside the propped-up foot with strips of gauze in hand.

"Mending the whiny little president's boy, if that's not a problem." Reno tacked down a pad of gauze on top of Rufus' foot by circling the cloth strips around it a few times.

"Wait 'til Tseng finds out that you let this happen!"

Reno yanked the end of the bandage tight, eliciting a silencing yelp from the teenager. He loosened it slightly. "Hey, I wasn't the one dancing around in the surf with a big ugly jellyfish beached mere inches away. Don't you look where you're stepping?"

"If you've learned to ignore my dad and Heidegger for as many years as I have, you'd miss a big plump jellyfish as well. There's really little difference, though I don't think dad stings."

Reno continued wrapping Rufus' foot gently as the V.P.'s sense of humor seemed to return. He got up and adjusted the pillows under the boy's leg to keep the foot propped up as high as comfortably possible.

"The doctor said to keep you off that foot for the rest of the day," Reno said, closing up the first aid kit.

Rufus regarded his foot, as its swollen form was completely wrapped in gauze. "Crap..." he muttered defeatedly.

"It's not so bad," said Reno.

"Coming from someone who's broken over 50 of the bones in his body and sprained just about everything sprainable..."

Reno's eyes narrowed, and he tried to ignore the comment. "With a little luck, the swelling will be gone by the time Tseng gets back, and if you keep your shoes and socks on, he won't be able to see the sting mark either. Errr...you, uh...aren't gonna tell him about this, are you?"

"And why shouldn't I?" Rufus grinned, getting the Turk right where he wanted him. "Unless...I suppose...you do a few favors for me..."

Reno went from sweating one notion to sweating another. "What, uh...sort of favors?"

"Oh, nothing much," Rufus said innocently. "But you _could_ start with getting me something to eat."

Reno went to the kitchen and came back with the easiest thing he could get that didn't require preparing and didn't make a mess. He laid a plate with a bunch of grapes on it on Rufus' chest. The V.P. just scowled angrily at him.

"_Well...!?_" Rufus propped himself up slightly with his elbows.

"Well, what?"

"Peel them and feed them to me!"

"But--" Reno started, but Rufus' face said it all. The Turk sighed and did as told, peeling the thin skin off of each grape and holding them close to the kid's mouth so he could bite them.

After two dozen grapes, Reno had enough and decided it was time to take them away. He carried them back to the kitchen and placed them back in the refrigerator. As he closed the door, more whining came from the bedroom area.

"Oh, Reno...! Can you fluff the pillows for me?"

Reno grumbled and turned back to the room he'd left Rufus in.

Rufus pointed at the stack of pillows under his leg until Reno tended to them. "Will that be all, Sir? ...Rufus?"

"I suppose..." Rufus put his hands under his head and relaxed. Reno took a few steps away. "Ah! Could you turn down the air conditioning? It's a bit chilly in here."

Reno back tracked a few steps to the thermostat and adjusted it.

"Oh, and can you go out and get me a magazine to read or something? You know...one of those swimsuit issue things..."

Reno's eyes narrowed. "If just to get away from you..." he muttered too quietly to be heard. He fetched a button-up shirt for himself and slid his arms into it, the front staying open. "Are you sure you'll be okay by yourself?" he asked.

"Sure. What could happen to me here?"

"Oh, you'll think of something," Reno said as he left the villa and closed the door behind him.

He crossed the avenue to a grouping of kiosks that sold all sorts of commodities. Among the multiple-genre of selections, Reno spotted a few titles meant for children and had half a mind to purchase on of them for his patient. Fearing what orifice the V.P. might shove it into if he did, Reno went for the requested 'zine, a swimsuit fashion magazine that featured nothing but female models in the latest all-revealing g-strings and bikinis.

When he returned to the villa, the bed he'd left Rufus in was empty. The blond haired boy was holding onto a wall on the opposite side of the room, hopping on one foot.

"What are you doing!?" Reno dropped the magazine and ran to the teen's side.

"You were taking too long..."

"I was gone five minutes!!"

"I need to go to the bathroom..." Rufus admitted.

Reno ducked down so Rufus could drape an arm over his shoulders. He held the boy around the waist and helped him hop across the hallway to the lavatory.

"I can do this myself, you know!" Rufus said once there, holding the drawstring to his shorts before continuing.

"Yes, yes..." Reno stepped out and closed the door behind him. He could hear everything and gave Rufus a moment to get his shorts back in order. "Are we done, sir?" he hesitantly poked his head back in.

"Whoa!" Rufus teetered, arms flailing to the sides.

Reno took a big step inside and held the boy steady so he wouldn't fall. This time he bent down and lifted Rufus completely off his feet to carry him back to the bed.

"You don't have to _carry_ me!" Rufus whined, but yelled as Reno turned the corner and accidentally let the boy's injured foot bump into the door jamb. "_Owww...!!!_" Rufus cried, tensing up.

"Sorry...sorry..." Reno's pulse quickened as he hastened to get the kid back onto the bed so his foot could be elevated again. Rufus writhed slightly even as Reno situated his right leg back up onto the mound of pillows. He checked the gauze bandage for any signs of bleeding, thankful that the wrapping had been there to cushion the blow.

While Rufus was still biting his lower lip in pain, Reno wandered off to the kitchen again. Upon returning, he fetched the magazine from the foyer and gave it to Rufus.

"Here. Keep yourself busy," Reno sat alongside of Rufus' propped up leg.

"What are you doing?" Rufus asked, opening the magazine to the centerfold. "Whoa! Ma-maa!" his eyes bugged out.

Reno grabbed the binding and yanked the magazine down so he could see what sort of nastiness the president's son was looking at. Turned out to be an awesome street rod car, so Reno let it go and turned his attention back to Rufus' foot. He pressed a pack of ice against the boy's toes, eliciting a yelp.

"Easy!" Reno cut in quickly to calm him. "This will help the swelling go down."

Rufus grinned and laughed lightly. "You're just afraid that Tseng's gonna chew your ass out for letting this happen to me."

"Oh, so we're gonna start with that again?" Reno's eyes narrowed, his hand vigilantly holding the cold pack to the boy's foot.

"He's gonna find out sooner or later. After all, you can't call our family physician and expect word not to get back to my father, do you?"

Reno knew he was had. The best he could do was cater to Rufus' every need and perhaps soften the blow when news got conveyed.

Rufus set the magazine aside and settled his head down. "Ah, but you do make for a good nurse, though, I suppose..."

Reno turned his head slightly, his hands keeping a constant yet gentle pressure holding the ice pack. Rufus sighed deeply and closed his eyes. Reno moved the ice to the top of the teen's foot, right over the sting so that the cold relief would penetrate the gauze wrap and soothe the main site of injury.

The Turk looked back at the serene look on his patient's face. "Feeling any better?" he asked.

Rufus opened his eyes, the hint of a smile on his lips. "Yeah, a little bit."

After icing the foot for a while, Reno could see improvement and rewrapped the bandages so they wouldn't be so loose as the swelling went down.

"And next time..." Reno said to him, "...if you need to get up for anything, just let me know." He smiled weakly.

Rufus shifted a little, the bedsheet bunched up in his back. "Sure. No problem."

Reno gathered the icepack up to return it to the freezer.

"Can you turn the TV on?" Rufus demanded before the Turk could wander out of sight.

Reno turned back around and retrieved the remote control off the nightstand which was within Rufus' reach. He clicked the TV on and placed the remote in the boy's lap before walking off to the kitchen.

Reno had a somewhat sleepless night, getting up every half hour or every hour to make sure that the vice president hadn't shifted and let his leg drop off the stack of pillows that kept it elevated to drain the swelling. Finally, the morning sun rose, and Rufus stirred.

There was a slight clattering at the front door.

"Reno!" the V.P. shook the sleeping Turk to wake him.

Reno lifted his head, eyes puffy and hair tousled out of shape. The front door opened, and Tseng Wulong and Rude Anderson walked into the room. Tseng took a few steps in and stopped short, beholding the sight of the disheveled Turk in bed with the Vice President of Shin-Ra.

Reno realized too late that he'd overslept in the early morning hours, and that his fellow Turks were a few hours early returning to Coasta del Sol. He tried to scramble into action to undo the evidence of any problem, but came to his senses knowing that Tseng already had a clue.

"Mr. Vice President, Sir..." Tseng went to Rufus' side. "Are you okay?"

"Reno did it!" Rufus immediately snapped accusingly, a finger pointed at the lanky Turk.

"_Me!?_ What did I do!?"

"Reno let me get stung by a jellyfish!"

Tseng eyed Reno suspiciously, reason dictating that there was nothing the Turk would have done to bring it on intentionally.

"Why, you back-stabbing traitor!" Reno reached for the collar of Rufus' shirt, but the V.P. reached up and took the same hold on Reno's collar. "After all I did to take care of you and speed your recovery...!"

Rufus just laughed, his grip loosening. Reno loosened his hold as well. "You're so funny when you get all riled up," said the teenager.

"Yeah, well..."

"Reno," Tseng called back his attention. "Was his doctor notified? Is he going to be all right?"

"Yeah, little bugger's gonna be fine..." Reno tugged at the gauze wrapping. It had gotten even looser as the swelling subsided overnight. He removed it completely, and all that was left was a pale pink line where the poisonous tentacle had touched him and a few scabs where he'd bled.

"Bathroom...bathroom..." Rufus said, sitting up and reaching a hand out. Tseng took the boy's hand and helped him walk across the room to the lavatory at the other end.

"A jellyfish...?" Rude asked, folding his arms disbelievingly.

Reno shrugged. "Shit happens, Rude."

"Reee-nooo!!!" his boss's angry voice came from across the way. Tseng came out with a certain magazine rolled up like a baton.

"Oh, crap!" Reno took a few steps backwards before darting out the front door and into the street. Tseng gave chase, but the redhead was already out to the beach.

Tseng turned back to the villa, more worried about Rufus and figuring that it would only be poetic justice if Reno came hobbling in a few minutes later with a jellyfish sting laced across his own foot.

**THE END**

(c) 2003, written by Zeng Li. The characters used in this fic are intellectual property of Squaresoft and are used without permission but lots of gratitude. This fic may not be reposted without the author's permission, and should never be used for the purposes of making money. Most recently updated Sept. 5, 2006.


End file.
